Everyone knows about “rubber timing” here, mainly because of traffic issues. Granted, they can be quite bad and everyone use that as an excuse really comfortably. W.I.T.H.O.U.T R.E.M.O.R.S.E.

It happens all the time for almost every appointments and I for one, don’t particularly condone impunctuality. I can let it slide with a 15-20 minutes lateness. Anytime later, I’ll be fuming mad. If you expect to be late, for god’s sakes, buffer your bloody time! And if you are really going to be late for the appointment you set earlier, for the love of God, call and inform accordingly! That’s the least you can do. Have a little courtesy and not let others wait for you.

While I cut a little bit of slack with impunctuality amongst friends, I can’t say the same when this happens in a professional environment. Not when they seem to deliberately waste time at the expense of other people. Nothing pissed me off more when the following happens:

1. My team and I were only informed of the meeting happening 3 days earlier from a partner who needed our help to pull them through with The Client
2. We have to pull in an all-nighter to get THE required presentation done for the meeting at such short notice while juggling tons of other work.
3. Partner team changed their mind about the content of the presentation the day before the meeting happens and so, we have to scramble to make the adjustments so it appears as “integrated” team work
4. When we got to the client’s place at the stipulated meeting time, we were told that the meeting will be postponed half an hour later because the Big Bosses got held up
5. Half hour of waiting turned to one half hour before the first Big Boss turned up to a room of 15 people
6. Big Boss disrupts every single sentence the presenter presented and nit-picked content to death
7. Almost 45 minutes later, the other Big Boss turned up with an extremely grumpy face
8. The presenting team had to re-hash what was presented before again to bring the other Big Boss up to speed
9. The other Big Boss did another round of #6 after the presentation ended, with less than positive comments and vague comments for action plans
10. Partner team suggested to close the meeting after the comments as they had to rush off for another meeting. Mr Clients refused, stating that this meeting has to finish, the other has to wait. No one refute, although no one actually wanted to stay on.

By then, the meeting had over-ran by more than 3 hours! We have been at the place since 2.50 pm and it was almost 8pm on a Friday evening before we got out of the meeting room! It was simply ridiculous. Just because these big fucks cannot manage their time, it doesn’t mean that they ought to impose their bad time management on other people. To me, this is sheer rudeness. What makes it even worse is that the culprits are not Thais who are generally known for their rubber time, but bloody Farangs! Foreigners who probably bear the brunt of scorns from their organization if they are late for even 5 minutes back at where they are from! I was literally fuming away and I was quite upset to hear that The Clients from this very organization (at every level too!) are known to be late all the time. As such, this is nothing unusual for the team. Frankly, I was appalled! How could they let that happen A.L.L T.H.E T.I.M.E? Of course, since I’m new to the team, I can’t quite say anything as I don’t even know the clients. It was my first meeting with them and already, I’m not liking what I saw.

I do, with all my heart and soul, find the entire situation appalling and completely unacceptable.It becomes more absurd especially if it is the very behaviour of the so-called Big Fucks. Where is the respect for people? Being perpetually late is just simply rude, unprofessional and unethical even. Don’t they realize that punctuality is a synonym for professionalism and respect, and that it is the very heart of integrity in action?